breathe
by suicidebycyanide
Summary: "Are you telling me you wouldn't do the same if it was one of your children? Please Max, you've got to help me."


ϟ

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**breathe**  
_free up your mind_

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Bobby, it was Bobby.

Jane remembers that night well, the night she discovered her step-daughter Lucy dead on the living floor; Bobby clutching the murder weapon tightly in his hand. She knew Lucy was dead, she didn't have a pulse and she knew it was pointless to call an ambulance, they wouldn't be able to bring her back.

She looks into Bobby's eyes as he's saying, "whatever she says, she started it." and her heart breaks slightly because there's stood her eleven year old step-son and he doesn't know that he's just killed his step-sister. She doesn't see a murderer when she stares at him, only sees a boy because that's what he is. A child, someone pushed to the edge because of his sister's warring attitude and ability to destroy even the best of people.

That's when Jane decides it's going to be okay because as a mother she has to sort out this mess. Bobby may not be hers biologically but that doesn't change the bond that's been created between them, a bond that Jane can't break because _her_ little boy accidentally killed his step-sister.

"Bobby go upstairs," she takes a deep breath because she really isn't sure what to do. She can't imprison her little boy and she can't exactly hide a body by herself either. Bobby doesn't even question Jane and walks upstairs. It's upstairs that Jane begins her motherly duty, she cleans the music box of Bobby's prints and places it back in its original position, hopeful nobody would notice that its been cleaned since Lucy last used it.

Bobby's in his own little world, oblivious that in the eyes of the law, he's a murderer regardless of age or size. Jane knows she can't let Bobby take the blame for this, if someone's going to be blamed for Lucy's death then it'll be her. As a mother she has to protect her young, its a natural instinct, you don't even question anything else.

She paces the living room staring at Lucy's body knowing she needs this nightmare to end. She needs it to appear to be an accident but how? How does she make this go away, how does she throw the scent of this house and _her_ son? She hears the back door and her heart sinks into her stomach; how does she explain Lucy's dead body on the living room carpet.

"Abi?" Jane almost breathes a sigh of relief when she hears Max. Max isn't Cindy or Peter or Ian, he isn't someone who matters to the family. Max doesn't have to be involved in this but it seems so perfect, someone who can help her move her body and come up with a plan. A plan to make this nightmare seem a little less real.

Max walks in to find Jane with tears streaming down her cheeks and Lucy's dead body and is rendered speechless, "Jane?"

"I need your help Max."

Help, Bobby needed help. He was going to realise sooner or later that Lucy wasn't coming home and that he was the person who delivered the fatal blow to the side of her head. How does an eleven year old deal with that? How does the family deal with the fact one sibling turned against the other?

"What happened?"

Jane's silent. She's battling with her conscience because she knows this is wrong, she's covering up a crime and she's an accessory and Max will be too if he accepts her offer of help. She also knows she can't, as a mother, stand there and watch her little boy go down for a crime when he didn't mean to kill her.

It was an accident but would they see it like that or would they twist it, make it out to be that Bobby was jealous of Lucy?

"It was Bobby. I, I don't know what happened. I just saw him, clutching the music box telling me she made everyone unhappy. I, he can't go down for this Max. He's, he's only a child, he didn't mean to kill her it was an accident. I have to protect him Max, you'd do the same if it was one of yours right?"

Max knows deep down its wrong but he knows if he was ever in the same boat, he'd do exactly the same. As a parent you have to protect your children and if it meant covering up their crime, he'd do it without batting an eyelid. They had five minutes to come up with a plan, five minutes before someone else would stumble upon the scene.

They moved Lucy to the commons, made it appear to be a mugging gone wrong and decided, together, they'd keep their shameful secret.

"Listen to me Bobby, you can't tell anyone about what happened okay? Promise me you won't tell anyone?"

"I promise," Jane knows secrets don't last forever but for now it would give her some time to think about what happens next. What does she do when their secret comes to light, how does she justify moving Lucy's body instead of phoning the police and telling them it was just an accident? How does she explain she did it out of love for the child she'd grown to love as one of her own?

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**jottings** / probably full of loop holes but this needed to be written. I didn't watch the show because I was working so if its incorrect or whatever, I apologise. If you like it enough to read/favourite pretty please leave a review, they are much appreciated. Thanks!:)


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